Feynman’s Theorizing and Visualization

Abstract

In this paper I explore and discuss the type of scientific understanding that Feynman had when he was developing his famous diagrams. It is argued that such understanding came from the physicist’s capacity of visualizing the phenomena and that such visualization-skill contributed to the forming of a narrative explanation. In support of this view, I consider two historical examples: (1) the absorber theory of radiation and path integrals, (2) and the lackluster reception of Feynman’s diagrammatic method at the Pocono conference (1948).

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